


The Plan

by swordPrincess



Series: Labstuck [6]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Labstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-07 22:26:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swordPrincess/pseuds/swordPrincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day has come. The betas break into the alpha section where the other four are waiting for them.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>labstuck.tumblr.com</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alpha Side

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this so long ago (September). I finally finished this without further idea interruption.
> 
> As always, see the labstuck tumblr for more info and if you want to ask any of the kids a question.

Jake was pacing in the classroom when he was startled suddenly by the door opening. He jumped a little.

"Hey, Jake," Roxy greeted him a tiny bit warily. "You're here early." She walked over to a nearby desk to dump her notebooks on it. They were followed by a pair of pink-framed sunglasses, of the style you might see on pictures of classy ladies at the beach.

"I couldn't sleep very well this morning," Jake explained. "Got a whole bunch of nerves firing off all willy-nilly. I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I just came here."

"Seems like you don't know what to do with yourself here either," Roxy observed. "You should've swung by my place. We could've hung out or somethin." She yawned though, betraying her preference for sleeping in.

"Thank you for the offer, Roxy, that was very sweet of you. But I guarantee that I am quite copacetic and I had no need to be bothering you from what was most assuredly your beauty sleep this morning."

Roxy made a face like she'd been licked by a kitten she would not be allowed to take home with her. "You are literally the cutest dude."

"Oh I don't know about that-" Jake was about to say something about her not really knowing a lot of people to form a solid basis for comparison, when he was cut off by the door opening again and Jane making her way in.

They blinked at each other for a bit. Roxy looked between them. "What don't you know about?" Jane asked after a few beats of silence.

Jake's mouth opened, but Roxy answered before he could come up with a reasonable reply. "Just Jake being, you know, the cutest guy eveeeeeeeeeeeeeeer. Which he totes is. Right, Jane?"

Jane quickly shot Roxy a slightly angry look, as one that has been over this topic many times and in excruciating detail in private conversations. She looked away from Jake and managed to answer honestly, though. "Yes," she replied somewhat quietly and went to her usual seat.

Jake blushed a bit. "My, but you girls are embarrassing me." He looked away and tried to find a way to change the subject. "Where the frig is Dirk?" he asked no one in particular.

The other boy had actually been in his room last night for a time while Jake couldn't get himself to sleep. He must have left sometime during the night, though, because he was gone before Jake woke up in the early morning.

"He usually comes in around the same time as the teacher," Jane pointed out.

"Which you'd know if you weren't the one rushing in practically one second before him all the time," Roxy chimed in.

"Oh. Right. Well." Jake took a moment to recover himself. "What sort of adventurer wants to spend time lolly gagging around in a classroom? Today is an exception, though, as it should prove to be quite an adventure indeed!"

Jane blinked a moment. "Oh, that's right. Your thing is today."

Jake beamed. "Yes it is! Isn't it exciting, Jane?"

"Oh, I don't know. I must admit it plumb slipped my mind," her tone of voice would convey to anyone who wasn't quite as dense as Jake that it didn't at all, "but," a somewhat worried expression crossed her face, "are we really sure it is even a good idea?"

"Of course it's a good idea!" Jake said with some force. "Where's your sense of adventure, Jane? And regardless, it's not like I could stop it now even if I wanted to. The plan is afoot!"

"I suppose." Jane wanted to say more, but she was weary of the time. This was not a good topic to be discussing if the teacher were to walk in.

"It will be great. You'll see." Jake finally took his seat as he said this. He looked toward the door somewhat nervously.

They were all silent for some time after this until sounds could be heard from the direction of the hallway followed by the door bursting open.

Dirk stood there, with his hand still holding the door open. He looked triumphant. Their teacher was right behind him in the doorway. They eyed each other for a moment, and the older man gave Dirk a once over. He realized in that moment that the teen was now the same height as him, if not just a very tiny bit taller. He scowled a bit.

"Mr. Strider. I fear if your limbs get any longer you will start to look frightfully like a spider."

Dirk cocked his head to one side. "Actually, spiders are exceptionally well known for having twice the amount of limbs as I do, so I'm afraid your comparison is somewhat off. I can count. Can you?"

The teacher turned his gaze higher and smirked somewhat. "And I see you have once again chosen to style your hair in a manner that takes advantage of its natural color in order to give off the appearance that your head is on fire."

Dirk smirked back. His eyes flicked around for more verbal ammo.

"Dirk, stop flirting with Mr. Moron," Roxy stopped the exchange from continuing. The teacher auto-corrected "Moran" but no one really paid it any attention. "We've got school to get on with."

Dirk shrugged and finally let go of the door to take his seat. His legs sprawled out in front of him like a trip wire.

Mr. Moran caught the door before it shut on him and stepped into the classroom with an exasperated sigh.

"Alright then. Since I have my meeting today, we will skip the review and get right to it." He started taking papers out of his satchel. "If you don't understand, that's too bad. It's not like anyone cares anyway."

His lack of tact was nothing new, and no one commented on it. He had once said that he didn't get paid to coddle them. But that begged the question of what, exactly, he did get paid for. If it didn't really matter if they properly learned what he taught them, why was he even brought in to teach? What purpose was it even supposed to serve? It was all another mystery wrapped up in the enigma of the experiment and their existence.

With any luck, some of that could get unraveled with their plan coming to fruition.

Mr. Moran droned on about various topics, engaging the kids occasionally, before an alarm on his watch shot off and he grabbed his briefcase to head out to the meeting.

Jake got up from his seat to hold the door for the teacher as planned, Mr. Moran thanking him oddly with a cocked eyebrow. He then jammed the metal into the locking mechanism and let it shut.

He then stared the door down for a minute in silence. The other pairs of eyes looked either at it, or at him.

"So now we wait," he announced, even though it was obvious.

Jane looked doubtful. Roxy excited. Dirk was a bit unreadable, but the closest guess would be antsy. He hadn't liked the idea of them being the ones to wait in the first place. He got up from his seat and paced a bit.

After a bit more silence, Jane spoke up. "Oh, this is incredibly silly," she said, a bit forced. "What are we even expecting?" She continued before Jake finished opening his mouth to deliver the obvious answer. "Oh, I know. The other kids, right? While I have conceded that Jake must have been talking to someone, and perhaps not just a cunning prankster, I still wonder if you aren't all over blowing this meeting rather spectacularly."

Everyone was so worked up about who the other four might be, why they had been locked away from them, and what mysteries might be solved. What would happen if it was just another group of kids who were no one in particular and they all got in trouble and that was the end of it?

More silence met her statement. No one looked at her. Eyes looked to the clock, wondering how long the trip would be down the hall. How long to wait until they should give up on waiting. Beside what Jane said, what if the plan failed somehow?

It was nerve wracking and dull at the same time.

But all of their heads turned toward the door as a noise came from outside of it.

The door opened.


	2. Beta Side

Rose was sitting at her usual desk with a book open in front of her, her eyes covered with sunglasses, when the door opened and John entered. She looked over at him and smiled warmly, placing a lavender ribbon in her page gently before closing her reading material, which turned out to be a Lovecraft novel. She then removed her shades and placed them down as well. They were purple framed, with small skull and crossbones details that could only be described as lovingly hand-painted in black.

"Hi, Rose!" John ventured a greeting after she had finished arranging her belongings.

"Hello, John," she responded back. "How are you this morning?"

"Uh, fine, I guess," John told her as he took his seat. "You didn't have to stop reading, you know. I can be quiet. Maybe."

Her smile widened a bit, knowing just how likely that was, and shook her head. "It's quite alright, I've read this one before anyway." She then made a gesture with her chin, indicating the door through which John had just entered. "Regardless, your entrance generally marks that there isn't much time before others. One of which, as we both well know, does not know the meaning of shutting his mouth."

John laughed at the little poke at Dave's rambles, and sure enough, the door opened and that was precisely who entered, followed immediately by Jade, holding both their share of books. She dropped them off at both desks while Dave just plopped down in his seat nonchalantly, looking smug. Jade sat in her own seat after she was done and gave a bright smile and a wave to Rose and John.

"Good morning!" she greeted with a voice like sunshine itself.

"Yeah, hey," was Dave's contribution.

John had an eyebrow raised at them. Rose was now full on smirking.

"I see you got Jade to carry your books for you, princess," Rose rested her head in her palm and spoke with an amused derisiveness.

"Hey now," Dave crossed his arms across his chest as he spoke in a tone that one would use to indicate that life was hard. "Jade is basically hella strong and it'd be wrong not to use this power for good, aka my advantage. I'd have her carry me, but then she wouldn't have arms free to carry the books, so I'd have to carry them and that would be really fucking counterproductive."

"Yeah, don't tease them, Rose," John put in, then turned to Jade. "Jade, I think it's very cute that you carry books for your girlfriend."

Jade giggled into her hand. Rose put her hand out to John from under the desk and they high-fived as discreetly as possible.

"Whatever." Dave scowled. "Haha. Very funny. Not. We aren't going out anyway, so your dumb joke doesn't even matter. Not that going out can even really be a thing in here. Pretty much by strict order, as my usual guard escort would indicate. Fuck that shit, anyway. What kind of relationship could you possibly have as a lab rat? Didn't you two try something or other and it didn't work?"

"It's not that it didn't work," Rose explained. "It's that John suffered from a most extraordinary fit in the nature of the Westermarck effect."

"Whereas you prefer Freud."

"Oh Dave." Rose shook her head, quite amused at her genetic sibling's lack of forethought once again. "If we were to go with that, I should much prefer you."

"No, we are not even fucking talking about that. Nope. Nope. Nope!" Dave covered his ears over-dramatically and shook his head like a small child on the verge of a tantrum.

After his fit and Rose's laughter had subsided, he continued speaking, changing the subject entirely, "Hey, let's talk about Jade's thing today."

Jade delivered a swift kick to his chair. "Shhh, you dummy!" she scolded him. "Ms. Blake could be here any minute."

"Right. Then let's not talk about Jade's thing today. But let's talk about something else. Please for the love of the remnants of my sanity."

"I don't know," John spoke up, and they all noticed his face had fallen into a frown. "I've been feeling really bad about not telling my dad about this. Like I'm betraying his trust or something."

"How many times have I told you, you can't trust your dad," Dave criticized with a finger pointed in John's direction. "He's a scientist. You shouldn't trust scientists. They're evil."

They all took a moment to reflect on his last comment with a mixture of amusement. At least it had served to lighten the mood.

"Then I guess the only person I can trust is Rose?"

"Yes, John. You are finally getting it. I am so so so very fucking proud of you."

John scowled at him slightly, but Dave continued. "It's obvious that Jade and myself are very suspicious characters. Especially Jade. Look at her." He took a moment to turn his head and observe Jade's smiling face, looking nothing even approximating evil. "She's obviously up to something."

The door opened again in time with the ensuing laughter, and Ms. Blake looked at them, blinking a moment as they quieted, before heading to her desk in front. "Good morning!" she exclaimed with a bit of forced brightness. "Now, you all know about my meeting today, so let's try to review as quick as we can, shall we?"

She smiled at the four of them as they straightened to face her. "Who can tell me about string theory?" she asked, then quickly added before the girl's hand could shoot completely up, "Other than Miss Harley."

Dave's hand went up lazily. "...Or Mr. Strider," Ms. Blake added again.

"Hey," Dave complained. "I'm sick of your discrimination against people that know their shit."

"Mr. Strider," she warned, but he paid it no heed.

"I mean, why the hell can't Jade or I answer science questions? Jesus flipping Christ, physics isn't even my science, how far must you go in your crusade to get only the people who least want to answer to have to explain?"

"Mr. Strider..."

"That's straight up bullshit, I say, that's-"

"Dave!" she shouted this time, and he finally cut off. "Fine, answer the question, then."

Dave raised his eyebrows and paused before speaking again. "Okay, thank you, finally, I will." Then he went into an explanation that was as much as a performance as possible. He would consider rapping it, but that sort of indulgence in answering questions was saved more strictly for biology topics.

The class proceeded until Ms. Blake had to excuse herself for the meeting and Jade got up quickly from her seat to hold the door open according to plan. A "thank you" came from their teacher before she headed out and Jade shoved her metal piece into the lock and let the door shut slowly. Her back turned against it as soon as it was over.

The other three looked at her a few moments before rising from their seats as well. She held out a finger for them to wait, trying to figure on how long it would take for the hallway to be clear to allow them safe passage.

When she judged it had been enough, she opened the door slowly again and turned back toward the others, holding her finger to her lips to indicate they should be quiet, then beckoned that they should follow her.

Jade lead the way through the quiet hallway, which was thankfully rather blissfully short. The nerves might have gotten the better of at least one of them had the walk gone on for too long.

She stopped in front of the alpha classroom door and gripped the handle firmly. It grunted a bit in protest, causing all their hearts to pound a bit harder before their fears were relieved.

The door opened.


	3. Breakthrough

The door opened and 8 pairs of eyes stared at each other, the door shutting softly behind the last one in, which happened to be Rose. They lined up as if preparing for execution by firing range, each set of four facing each other nearly squarely, none of them knowing which would do the firing in this metaphor.

The thick silence was broken by Jade, her smile on full force. "Jake?" she asked, addressing the boy with whom she'd been corresponding for some time.

He nodded. "That would be me. And you're Jade?"

"Yep!" she replied, but then added, "Perhaps we should all introduce ourselves!"

There were maybe a couple of muffled groans at being addressed like 5-year-olds, but the concept made more than enough sense. Other than the two that had already spoken, they were strangers to each other.

"I'm Jade Harley!" she started. "I like science, especially physics. Technology. And I also love animals a lot. I used to have a dog, but he...died awhile ago." She frowned a bit sadly at the last part, but perked up her smile again.

Jake took it as his turn, since he was the other conspirator in this. "Jake English," he announced. "For myself, I find quite a bit of enjoyment in many fine films." There was almost a collective snort from the other three alphas as he said this. "They are amazing, thank you very much! I also find I like to, shall we say, ponder at the prospect of adventure and whatnot, although there isn't much to be had but boredom aplenty in here!" He laughed, but then stopped himself short, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

There was a bit of silence while no one knew who should go next. John ended up speaking first. "I'm John Egbert," he said. "I also like movies. Then I like jokes and pranks and magic tricks. I'm also into computers and programming, although, still getting my hand around that." He made a bit of a face at his difficulty.

Roxy, watching him with a smile, started opening her mouth, but Jane surprised everyone who knew her by beating her to it. "My name is Jane Crocker," she told them quite formally. "I may consider myself quite the prankstress, John, so you have some competition in that department." She smiled. "I also fancy detective stories and cooking."

Before there was any more than a tiny beat after Jane stopped speaking, Roxy jumped right in after. "Roxy Lalonde!" she nearly shouted, causing Jane to rub her ear a bit. "I also do computer programming," she told John, "but I'm totes awesome at it, so maybe I could teach you a few things." She winked. "I'm also a totally rad hacker, like I basically got past our internet blocks all by myself over here, what would these three losers even do without me, I say that with love. I also loooooove wizards and magic and such. But also science."

"Rose Lalonde," Rose stated calmly after her, a stark contrast of tone. "I enjoy literature, exploration of the zoologically dubious, and psychology. Additionally, I quite enjoy crafts."

The Striders were the only ones left, and neither of them said anything at first, although both got stared at.

Dave leaned himself out of their odd line up and against the wall of the classroom, crossing his arms. "Dave Strider," he spoke finally. "And I like cool shit."

Jade rolled her eyes. "He means he likes science and music and pretending to be a tool!" she explained and stuck her tongue out at him a bit.

He made a sort of shrug of acknowledgement. "Like I said, cool shit."

That left Dirk. "Dirk Strider," was all he said. No elaboration was presented.

Roxy decided to take it upon herself to fill in the blanks for him. "Dirk likes puppets and robots and shit," she said.

He nodded.

"Also horses," she added.

"Yes," he agreed.

She smirked. "And butts."

"Hell yes." He stepped a foot backward and leaned, turning his shaded gaze toward the exquisite sight of the bottom of one Jake English.

"And boys."

Dirk snapped his head back to look at her instead. "Rox," he said evenly.

Her eyes met his in a way that almost resembled a challenge. "What?"

He shook his head and looked back away, and her tension dropped. "So now that we're all introduced and such, what do we do now?"

John put a hand to his chin. "Do we just, like, exchange chum handles and go back? I mean, it's super sweet to meet you all, but we don't want to get caught...do we?"

Roxy looked somewhat distressed. "Nooo! Don't leave so soon! She actually reached out to grab John's wrist, making him gape at her in surprise. She let go apologetically. "I just mean to say, you only just got here an' all. You aren't going to leave just like that? All this planning and risking and junk for a few minutes? There must be more point to this! Please say this is pointier than that?" She looked to Jake, who just looked bewildered and turned to Jade.

Jade walked swiftly back to the door. "It is," she answered, quickly opening the door back up, removing the metal and closing it once more, the lock clicking into place, effectively trapping them all. "No one is leaving."

Jane put her hand to her mouth in shock. Everyone else just stared at her.

"What?" John questioned her, blinking.

"No one is leaving," she repeated. "We are going to get caught."

"So that was your plan all along?" Dirk asked, raising an eyebrow over the angled cut of his sunglasses.

"It was," she answered. "But more than that, while we still have time before, I have something to show all of you."

She drew some papers out from a pocket in her skirt and came forward through them to lay them on a desk, unfolding them and laying them flat with her palms. "These are some sequences from our DNA."

Dave shot over to her as soon as she said that and drank them in with his eyes, like they were apple juice after a great apple famine. Roxy came over to study them with interest as well. Rose and Dirk came and peered over as well, leaving only John and Jane hanging back before their curiosity got the better of them.

"What do these sequences actually mean?" Rose asked.

"I don't really know. I caught they were different from a normal human DNA sequence, but my knowledge of biology isn't advanced enough to figure out what they actually do," Jade answered her, voice all business.

"I might be able to figure some of this shit out with time," Dave said, still scanning them, taking in as much detail as he could. "Maybe more with some help."

"Yeah," Roxy put in. "This sequence here," she pointed at one spot on the paper as she spoke.

"The eyes, yeah," Dave finished for her, his gaze not leaving the papers. "That one I can kind of put into place because we know the end result of that, already."

Dirk leaned in a bit closer. "But what's the rest of it?"

Roxy shook her head. "I'm not sure yet."

"This shit's a mystery wrapped in an enigma all shut up tight in a box with a lock that puts a fucking Rubik's cube to shame," Dave supplied. "Especially-"

He got cut off by a noise at the door behind them. The lock was turning and their hearts pounded as the door opened once more, way ahead of schedule. The meeting was supposed to take more time than that...

Both teachers entered the classroom together. Mr. Moran looked furious, Ms. Blake distressed. She let out a breath at the sight of them all and held a hand to her chest.

Mr. Moran held a sort of intercom to his mouth. "Code Gamma," he said tensely into it. "Please advise."

After a few moments, a woman's voice, thickly accented, replied, "Stay there. I will come myself."

Ms. Blake's eyes widened, her distress deepening before attempting to collect herself. Most of the kids looked at each other, having no idea what was going on. All except Jane, who stared at the communication device through which the voice had come.

Mr. Moran addressed them in a harsh tone, "A silent alarm trips if the classroom doors have been unlocked for too long."

Jake cringed. Jade bit her lip. If she'd known, she would have taken her piece of metal right out again once they'd left. Obviously, their classroom alarm had gone off and when Ms. Blake had returned to find them gone, she must have came with the other teacher here. Jade had wanted them to get caught, sure, but not prematurely. She had wanted to spend more time with the papers, and more than that, had definitely not wanted them to still be out when they were found.

She attempted to start collecting them slowly and as discreetly as possible, using the cover of the other teens still surrounding the area and trying to not make a noise with the shuffle of papers.

The door opened before she could fold them all back up, and a woman entered, walking silently in slippers, like a predator, except that predators that stalked their prey did not typically wear bright fuchsia over black stockings and long black gloves. She also wore an absurdly large hat over a mane of wild black hair that even the most heavy duty brush in the world would most likely not be able to tame. Her face was thickly veiled and completely unreadable except for a hint of her lips, painted far too bright a magenta to not be seen through any material with visible holes. The top half of her face was further shadowed by the large brim of her hat. She'd come across as ridiculous if her presence were not utterly terrifying.

"What have we here?" she spoke through a silence like death, with only the ticking of the clock and the sound of breathing. It was the same foreign voice they had heard speak to Mr. Moran. Her hands went to her hips as she stopped in front of them.

No one answered. No one moved.

"I see you have found each other," she addressed the kids. They could see the bright pink color that marked her lips quirk up into a smile, flashing white in between. They could not tell if it was just an illusion from the thickness of the veil that made her teeth seem sharp.

She turned to the teachers. "They've broken in," she stated. "Finish your class together. I'll have the wall torn down tomorrow, and the section door unlocked."

Both teachers looked thoroughly shocked.

"As simple as that?" Ms. Blake asked, not able to keep a slight quiver out of her voice. "No punishment?"

"Would you like me to punish them?" the voice sounded amused.

"N-no!" Ms. Blake cried in distress. "Of course not!"

The was no further response as the foreign woman turned back to the group of kids and made a beeline for Jade, who had just finished folding her papers while the attention had been on the teachers, and was attempting to get them back in her pocket.

"Girl," she addressed her directly. "Give me those." It was a demand.

Jade felt something like a growl rise in her throat and her arm rose to command before she could even think to do otherwise. The woman took them from her, slid the folded packet between buttons near her breast, and strode back out of the room.

The atmosphere in the room the moment she left was as if someone had snapped a tension wire.

"Who in all the levels of hell was that?" Dirk asked, eyebrows knit together.

Mr. Moran answered him, "A top executive of the company currently funding this project. We've never been told her exact position, only that she is the absolute highest that has ever or will ever enter this building."

"I know her," Jane said, in a voice as if in a trance and falling back onto a chair. "I know that voice somehow."

Everyone looked at her but no one responded. Ms. Blake left the classroom hurriedly and returned a few times with chairs.

The kids sat in silence, on edge, while the instructors whispered back and forth with each other about what they should do the rest of the day.

They ended up just discussing with the teenagers about where each group was in various subjects and coming up with plans to be on the same page within a week or two.

They then dismissed them early, the teachers being in no more mood to be here than the kids were, Ms. Blake escorting the four betas personally back to their section.

If one thing was entirely clear it was that things had changed forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for The Plan!
> 
> Will have more Labstuck stuff coming up in the future! You can also ask me stuff on the tumblr, or ask the kids questions if you'd like! I'll answer those much quicker than I write fic.


End file.
